This distinction is bestowed on a health care attorney who has made an exceptional, lifetime contribution to the practice of health law in the community.

For more than 40 years, Struthers has helped protect the interests of a wide variety of health care-related entities and persons, including health care providers, third-party payors, medical manufacturers and health care-related associations. She advises clients on fraud and abuse issues in investigations, transactions, reimbursement issues, sales and marketing initiatives and compliance activities, including anti-kickback and self-referral prohibitions, and false claims and conflicts of interest issues. She has handled many health care transactions, including joint ventures and integrated health care delivery systems. Struthers has also been a key player in Minnesota health care litigation, including cases where she was involved in defending a client in a constitutional challenge to the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Insurance Act of 1976 and representing a medical staff where the Minnesota Supreme Court held that medical staff bylaws can be a contract between a hospital and its medical staff.

Struthers is a long term, active member of the MSBA Health Law Section who has served in leadership positions and speaking roles throughout the years. She is a member of the American Bar Association Health Law Section and the American Health Lawyers Association, where she has also been active over the years. Committed to sharing her extensive knowledge of health law, Struthers served on the Advisory Board of the Joint Degree Program in Law for Science and Technology at the University of Minnesota Law School for many years, and also taught a seminar on fraud and abuse compliance to students at the University of Minnesota Law School.

She earned her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota and her B.A. from Carleton College.

Struthers was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award on May 31 during the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Health Law Section annual meeting.